AUSTIN, Texas – No. 17 Texas men’s tennis concluded non-conference play with two sweeps on Saturday at Penick-Allison Tennis Center. Texas (12-5) started the day with a 7-0 win over Abilene Christian (10-11) and ended the day under the lights with a 7-0 win over Rice (8-9).

The Longhorns improve to 7-1 at home this season and will begin a five-match Big 12 Conference season at No. 10 Oklahoma on April 5.

“I think we have learned a lot this year to this point,” Head Coach Michael Center said. “We came in this year with a little different attitude but I think as the year has gone on, our team has learned that every point is an opportunity to change the momentum of the match. If you compete and fight, good things can happen.”

In three all-time matches against NCAA Division II Abilene Christian, UT has not surrendered a point (23-0). The Longhorns improved their all-time series lead against Rice to 66-17-7.

Against ACU, the Horns won all six singles matches in straight sets. Freshman Andrew Korinek played No. 1 singles for the first time of his career and defeated ACU’s Hans Hach, 6-4, 6-2. 43rd-ranked Soren Hess-Olesen clinched the victory for the Horns in No. 2 singles with a victory over Gulherme Gesser (6-1, 6-3).

Texas’ match with Rice started with one of the closest doubles points of the season.

After Rice took a 3-0 lead in No. 2 singles, Soren Hess-Olesen and Lloyd Glasspool came back to win seven of the last eight sets to defeat Peter Frank and Philipp Seifert, 8-4. Jacoby Lewis and Nick Naumann traded sets with Jonathan Chang and Leif Berger until breaking serve at 7-7 and holding serve in the final set to win, 9-7, and clinch the doubles point.

Ben Chen and Daniel Whitehead notched a 9-8 win with a 7-5 tiebreaker over Adam Gustafsson and Tommy Bennett in No. 1 doubles after the point had been decided.

“Obviously it helped the momentum heading into singles because we got off to quick starts in singles and rolled from there,” senior Daniel Whitehead said. “But that doubles point – that was the moment where it could have gone either way. I think that swung the match in our favor.”

After wins from freshmen Nick Naumann in No. 5 singles and Andrew Korinek in No. 6 singles, senior Daniel Whitehead clinched the dual match victory for the Longhorns with a straight set win over Philipp Seifert (6-3, 6-2).

The Longhorns begin Big 12 Conference play on Friday, April 5 at No. 10 Oklahoma, followed by a trip to Oklahoma State on Sunday, April 7.